


The Tudors, Season 2, Episode 10, Destiny and Fortune

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s02e10 Destiny and Fortune, Meta, Nonfiction, Season Finale, Season/Series 02, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25274602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 3





	The Tudors, Season 2, Episode 10, Destiny and Fortune

Open to a sword being cleaned.

Someone blows out a candle.

The title-card announces it’s May 18th, 1536.

In a foggy field, someone rides.

In the tower, Anne prays.

Meanwhile, Henry can’t sleep.

At the Brandon house, Charles Brandon and his wife are in bed. He’s shirtless, and given what’s about to happen, I hope they aren’t naked. At the foot of the bed, his curly-haired son climbs under the blanket to crawl up in between them. Rolling over, Charles Brandon places an arm over his son and his wife.

During the morning, Henry watches two swans swimming together from out a window.

Later, in a chapel, he tries to pray. Behind him, holding candles, women softly singing. Yelling, “Enough!” he storms off.

There’s a scene of Elizabeth being treated as a princess.

In the tower, the food Anne didn’t eat is thrown away. It couldn’t have been given to someone else?

Coming in, the jailer quietly tells Anne she’s to beheaded rather than burned. Henry’s hired an executioner from Calais to ensure her execution is as painless as possible. She asks when she’s to die, and he answers at nine in the morning. Anne asks him to bring Cranmer so that she can give her last confession and have communion.

Elsewhere, Henry dictates to Cromwell a letter to the emperor. Looking outside, he sees the two swans.

Back at the tower, Cranmer asks the jailer how Anne is doing. The jailer answers she’s calmer. He continues she's reconciled herself to her fate. In the room, Cranmer gently informs Anne Henry has annulled the marriage due to his involvement with Mary Boleyn and that Elizabeth is to be declared a bastard.

If Henry and Anne were never married, even if she did cheat on him, it would be as his mistress, not his wife, and thus, she wouldn’t be guilty of treasonous adultery. Also, if they were never married, she was never queen. Therefore, those men who supposedly slept with her didn't commit treason by sleeping with the queen.

Cranmer promises to try to keep Elizabeth safe.

She asks for the jailer to stay as a witness for her last confession. Both men sit down, and she kneels. Confessing she’s done things she’s not proud of, she nevertheless insists on innocence in regards to the adultery charge. She wishes she could have spared her brother and the other innocent men their fate, but she believes she’ll soon be joined with them in peace.

This scene is awesomely done by Natalie Dormer, and honestly, I don’t know why she didn’t play Anne more as she does in this in scene. It’s possible she was allowed to play her own interpretation, but the possibility it might have been the writers or directors wouldn’t let her/didn’t guide her to is also there.

I’ve said before I don’t like the change from Anne being a victim of Henry’s obsessive stalking to being a femme fatale working on her family’s orders nor how blithely Reformism was approached by Anne for most of the two seasons, but even with all this, Dormer has proven more than capable of selling kindness, intelligence, flirtiness, and religious, passionate responses to life. If more of this had been shown in equal measure throughout the two seasons, she would have made a brilliant Anne Boleyn even with these changes.

Almost crying, Cranmer blesses her. He orders the jailer to go report Anne’s confession to the world. After he leaves, Anne grabs Cranmer to ask if there’s any chance the Reformer bishops might intercede for her.

Elsewhere, Mary is praying when Eustace visits. She coldly asks if “the harlot” is dead. They talk about Anne’s supposed crimes, and it seems they both know are false. She asks about Jane Seymour, and he says Catholic Jane will restore Mary. Mary asks if Elizabeth is now a bastard as Mary has been, and showing no sympathy for the toddler about to lose her mother, Eustace answers, “The brat is now a bastard.”

Meanwhile, Henry orders a servant to ready the horse.

As a priest reads Ecclesiastes, there’s intercutting scenes of Anne preparing for her death as Jane prepares for her meeting with Henry.

The jailer comes, and Anne is ready to go to her death. However, the executioner is late. Anne wants her pain to be over with, and the jailer assures her there will be no pain during her execution. Laughing involuntarily, Anne brings up the fact she has a little neck.

At the Brandon household, the curly-haired Brandon is practising with a sword. He knocks some candles down, and Charles Brandon yells at him. It’s revealed his name is Edward.

Historically, Charles Brandon didn’t have any sons named Edward. He had eleven recorded children. Eight were legitimate, and three were illegitimate. Three of his sons were named Henry, and two of them were named Charles.

In the show’s canon, such a fact would be rather telling, wouldn’t it?

Edward apparently stabs his father, and after letting his son grow increasingly concerned, Charles Brandon reveals himself unharmed. “Edward, this is not a toy.”

Edward asks if his father has ever killed anyone. Charles Brandon honestly answers he has. Then, he implies he’s only done so in battle.

I think Norris, Mark, George, and soon, Anne, would all like to have a word with him. Wolsey and Buckingham might, too.

Being a child, Edward is excited and curious about killing and death.

Henry Cavill does a good job of showing Charles Brandon at war with himself. Charles Brandon understands the innocence Edward is coming from. Part of him wants to let his son keep the innocence, but another part feels he has to make his son understand killing isn’t something to be glamorised.

Edward asks if he can go to Anne’s execution with Charles Brandon.

Later, Cromwell and a man are talking about the cost of Anne’s execution. Characterising it as “daylight robbery”, Cromwell shows his amazement the executioner is paid so much for delivering one stroke.

Pleasure to see you, irony.

Elsewhere, the executioner’s horse has hurt its foot, and the executioner is extremely gentle when he leads it through the forest.

Next, Cromwell has to let Henry know the executioner still hasn’t arrived. Henry demands someone else be gotten, but Cromwell points out Henry made a public promise. Using physical force in addition to a small dagger, Henry makes it clear Cromwell should find someone else.

After Cromwell hurriedly leaves, Henry goes after him to make it clear Cromwell shouldn’t find someone else.

In the tower, the jailer has to again tell Anne her execution is delayed. Explaining she’s prepared to die, Anne makes it clear waiting longer will only make it harder to face when the time comes. She starts to suggest someone else be used, but the jailer says Henry is determined this executioner will be used.

Suggesting Henry is testing her, she thinks she might be sent to a nunnery, and knowing better but not willing to do anything to add to her suffering, the jailer simply leaves.

Meanwhile, Henry goes to the Seymour house. At a feast, he tells John he wants to marry Jane before informing the table that his engagement to Jane will be announced publicly tomorrow.

Elsewhere, Elizabeth is throwing a fit. Lady Bryan handles it by threatening to hit her if she doesn’t stop. Elizabeth stands quietly, and Lady Bryan explains to another woman Elizabeth’s household expenses are being used to house Anne in the tower. She gives a speech about how much life sucks for women unless they manage to marry a rich man who’s not involved in politics, manage not to die during childbirth, and don’t somehow catch the plague.

In the gardens, Henry and Jane walk. He asks what she wants to talk about, and she says she’d like him to reinstate Mary as heiress apparent. He orders her to focus on the children they’ll have, and she suggests reinstating Mary will be for good for his psychological state, for their children, and for the kingdom. Making it clear he wants a new beginning, he goes on about her incorruptible purity. They kiss.

In the tower, Anne is talking about her time as child in French courts.

In another part of the power, Charles Brandon visits Boleyn. Boleyn is casually eating, and he couldn’t care less about his dead son or soon-to-be dead daughter. Instead, happy he’s being released, he asks if he still gets to keep his earldom.

Charles Brandon shoves him against the wall. He asks if he watched George die, if he’ll watch Anne die, and if it was all worth it.

This would be more satisfying if someone who wasn’t partially responsible for George and Anne’s deaths were lecturing him.

In the next scene, Anne watches her father walking outside. Childlike, she puts her hand against the window with a smile. Coldly turning, he resumes walking.

Meanwhile, Henry’s riding with some men. He stops, and in a creek, he does this weird, meaningless baptism thing.

He hasn’t changed, and he isn’t starting fresh. He will always place himself above others, he will always hurt those who love him, and he’ll never fully be able to heal his bloodstained conscience.

Elsewhere, the executioner has finally arrived.

After being charged with repeatedly inflicting psychological torture on a woman I think he believes to be innocent, the jailer sharply says, “I deeply regret that you were delayed.” He says the execution is scheduled for nine in the morning, and the executioner will be woken two hours before in order to have breakfast.

The executioner explains how it’ll go: He plans to hide his sword before Anne arrives. She isn’t to be restrained, and once she’s said her final words and prayers, he’ll call for a boy to fetch his sword. As she’s looking at the boy, he’ll quickly retrieve the sword to deliver the blow.

This character is fascinating. Subtly bloodthirsty, he takes pride in killing people, but he’s not a cruel sadist. He’s kind to his animal, and he’s developed this method of giving his victims the most peaceful, painless death he can. I’m glad the show is presenting him as a complex human rather than a cartoonish villain.

He promises the jailer won’t be disappointed, and uncomfortable, the jailer quickly leaves.

In the tower, as her ladies sleep, Anne prays. She remembers playing with a sundial as a little girl. In the memory, George calls for her, and picking her up, her father twirls her around.

The title-card declares it Friday May 19th, 1536.

Henry still can’t sleep. He goes out to look at the swans.

Next, the jailer come to inform Anne it’s time. He delivers money from Henry for her to pay the executioner and give charity to the poor with.

In the castle, a shaking Cromwell kneels down to pray, but his conscience won’t let him.

Finally, Anne is led out. There's a crowd. Some people cross themselves, some people touch her, and some shout abuse. Wyatt arrives in the crowd, and Charles Brandon, Edward, and Cranmer are shown. Anne asks the jailer not to give the signal for her death until she’s fully done with her final words.

She gives a speech hinting at her innocence without condemning Henry. Her ladies help her with her clothes and jewels before leaving, and the executioner kneels. Declaring she forgives him, she hands him the purse. Asking the crowd to pray for her, she kneels down to pray. The priest reads from The Bible.

The crowd begins kneeling, too, and the men remove their hats. The executioner adjusts Anne’s cap. Finally, Charles Brandon kneels, but he doesn’t remove his hat.

Seeing Anne is beginning to get nervous, the jailer nods to the executioner. The executioner calls for his sword. Turning, Anne sees birds flying in the sky. As the sword strikes, her last memory is of her father holding her.

In the castle, Henry is served one of the swans, and he stuffs his face.

Fin.


End file.
